27. Martin Luther King
Although highly controversial during his lifetime and continuing for decades after his death, there is little doubt regarding King’s influence on American life and history. During the civil rights campaigns and demonstrations of the 1950s and 1960s, he urged a policy of non-violence and the practice of civil disobedience rather than violent confrontation. The first president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, and was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. After his death it was revealed that the FBI, CIA, and NSA, and numerous local law enforcement agencies conducted extensive surveillance of his activities and communications throughout his lifetime, much of them illegally.